Breaking: “100% Ricin” found in Vegas hotel

posted at 8:51 am on February 29, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

Police in Las Vegas have begun investigating the discovery of a bag of the deadly poison ricin in n Extended Stay hotel. After a guest brought the bag to the front desk, he and several employees had to go through a decontamination process. Police also found castor beans, the source of ricin, in the same room:

Authorities were called to an Extended Stay America hotel around 3 p.m. after a man brought a bag holding a small container to the manager’s office. The man said he found it while retrieving items from a hotel room.

It’s “100 percent ricin,” said Capt. Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. “We don’t know who (the ricin) belongs to or why it would be here at this time.”

Three hotel employees and a fourth person who came to the room to retrieve some items were taken to the hospital as a precaution, Officer Ramon Dendy told CNN. Three police officers who went into the room are also being watched at the hospital. None of the seven have shown symptoms of ricin poisoning, which can include anything from difficulty breathing, fever, cough, nausea and sweating to severe vomiting and dehydration.

“We did have enough ricin to be of concern,” Lombardo said. “At this point, it has been contained and processed where it’s not a threat to anybody.”

Ricin has been used in the past. Suspected Bulgarian assassins shot dissident Georgi Markov with a ricin-loaded pellet from an umbrella gun, and he died four days later. The White House discovered ricin in its mail in 2003, and in the same year a South Carolina mail processing center also found a ricin-laced envelope. In 2006, two other incidents involving ricin occurred at the University of Texas and in Richmond, Virginia. The latter case involved a domestic dispute and an alleged murder plot, but not terrorism.

One would expect a ricin attack in Las Vegas to target a more high-profile hotel than an Extended Stay. The presence of castor beans could indicate that the person who produced the ricin intended to use the hotel as a base of operations for the attack. Why it got left behind without any action is anyone’s guess, but the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI will be looking for the answers.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Excuse my ignorance here, but how bad can it be if the man bringing to the desk, the employees, and the police who responded didn’t even get sick? How is this transmitted? Other than the umbrella gun, has it ever been used as weapon?

Though this is somewhat worrisome there is no need to panic at this time. Considering ricin’s limited medical value, it could be very possible that this was brought in by some Dr. for medical purposes. Though I would check the record books for any “suspicious” names.

Excuse my ignorance here, but how bad can it be if the man bringing to the desk, the employees, and the police who responded didn’t even get sick? How is this transmitted? Other than the umbrella gun, has it ever been used as weapon?

Did somebody panic and run? Sounds like they were planning to produce the poison and use it elsewhere, not attack that hotel. Extended Stay=time to do processing, with the obvious attempt to keep the evidence out of the primary residence.

Though this is somewhat worrisome there is no need to panic at this time. Considering ricin’s limited medical value, it could be very possible that this was brought in by some Dr. for medical purposes. Though I would check the record books for any “suspicious” names.

BackseatDriver on February 29, 2008 at 9:14 AM

Castor beans were found at the scene. I doubt doctors “brew their own” medicinal quality Ricin.

I wish we’d stop getting the automatic “there’s-no-link-to-terrorism-nothing-to-see-here-don’t-be-alarmed-go-back-to-sleep” line. They plainly said, “We don’t know who (the ricin) belongs to or why it would be here at this time.” So, how about they investigate and then tell us whether or not there were links to terrorism? Try that one. We can handle it.

Hey, if they catch the guy and find out that he has several friends with like amounts of a substance that could kill thousands pretty easily… uh… could we pour a little water in his nose to get their plans? No, I guess that would be wrong. Maybe we could quickly check his phone records! Nah, somebody might get sued. Well, let’s just hope these guys have had a change of heart and will love us as soon as Jesus 2.0 takes over.

Hey, if they catch the guy and find out that he has several friends with like amounts of a substance that could kill thousands pretty easily… uh… could we pour a little water in his nose to get their plans? No, I guess that would be wrong. Maybe we could quickly check his phone records! Nah, somebody might get sued. Well, let’s just hope these guys have had a change of heart and will love us as soon as Jesus 2.0 takes over.

Sugar Land on February 29, 2008 at 9:51 AM

You see, I’d just rather slit them from stem to stern and dance a jig on their disemboweled intestines…but I guess that’s one reason I’m not in the Intelligence game.

Just a hunch, but I’ve always thought Vegas would be the next target of a terror attack. “Sin City” and all…gambling, booze, etc….what better target for Islamic extremists?

And as someone mentioned, why would a whole bag of ricin be left behind? We know that it takes only a minute amount of the stuff to kill someone…I truly hope that bag is all there is. If I were vacationing in Las Vegas right now, I can’t say I wouldn’t be a bit nervous.

Puhleeze. How many times does the boy have to cry wolf before you ignore him?

A substance found at a motel may be the deadly toxin ricin, but authorities said Friday they don’t believe it was intended for a terrorist attack. Lab tests on the substance were pending and seven people were taken to hospitals as a precaution.

“This event does not appear to be terrorism related,” FBI spokesman Richard Kolko in Washington said Friday morning.

I heard on Fox earlier that the hotel where this was found is located close to a water treatment plant.

Ricin isn’t very water-soluble. And you’d need a lot of it to contaminate a water supply such that it’d actually do damage to people. That isn’t a very likely scenario.

Also, if not related to terrorism, what exactly does the FBI think is a legitimate reason for a ‘container’ of ricin existing in a vacant hotel room?

Murder.

News reports here in Vegas were quick to dismiss any terrorist activity… how surprising.

Well yeah, because terrorism doesn’t work if you aren’t terrorized. Vegas is a vacation destination. Whether it is terrorism or just murder doesn’t really matter as far as law enforcement is concerned. But if you prance out the “terrorism” word, tourists stop coming to Vegas, which isn’t good.

If the left follows it usual logic, the left will attempt to scapegoat the castor plant. They will claim that banning castor plants and this mess will go away. There is the little detail that Castor plant is native to the region that the terrorists come from. And then there is the little problem of it being an invasive species in the American Southwest.

Excuse my ignorance here, but how bad can it be if the man bringing to the desk, the employees, and the police who responded didn’t even get sick? How is this transmitted? Other than the umbrella gun, has it ever been used as weapon?

sweeper on February 29, 2008 at 9:09 AM

Being in the Environmental, Health and Safety field working mainly in the chemical industry (most of my background is in hazardous materials management/emergency response) there are several factors that go into answering your question:

1) The route of entry the substance needs to take, e.g., inhalation, ingestion, or absorption/injection through the skin. Some substances are more hazardous when inhaled (like asbestos) while some are more hazardous when absorbed through the skin or ingested.

2) Exposure, you have to be exposed to the substance to have a response, in this situation the person bringing the ricin to the front office seems to not have been exposed. I’m not certain but I imagine the route of exposure for ricin would be inhalation, injection, and ingestion. Skin contact (unless the ricin contacted an open wound or sore) wouldn’t be a route of entry.

3) Dose/Response, you have to have a sufficient dose to have a response. While ricin is very deadly in small amounts you still have to have a sufficient exposure (dose) to get a response (sick or dead).

The steps the authorities had taken (decon) are standard procedure in a hazmat incident. This is not to say some of those that came into contact with the ricin (in particular the person bringing the material to the front desk and the person taking the material at the front desk) weren’t exposed and won’t show signs and symptoms of exposure to ricin later, that all depends on the items I pointed out above.

Also, ricin is good for killing a small number of people you have direct contact with (like injecting a ricin laced pellet into someone’s body) but to weaponize it to kill numerous people is much more difficult when you start getting into how to deliver it in an aerosol form in sufficient quantities and concentrations for people to get a sufficient dose.

“We don’t know who (the ricin) belongs to or why it would be here at this time.”
If they don’t have a good idea who the ricin ‘belongs to’, why it was there, then they’re dangerous in their stupidity. Lock them up with the ricin.

Zionists, if you want this kind of open war, let the whole world listen: Let this war be open.”

The thousands of black-clad mourners in the ceremony hall raised their fists in the air, chanting, “At your orders, Nasrallah.”

“He’s not the first martyr, nor will he be the last on this path,” Mottaki said, reading a statement of condolences from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with an interpreter translating into Arabic. “There will be hundreds and millions more” like him.

Afterward, the coffin was carried outside through the crowds of mourners, who marched with it to a nearby cemetery, praying aloud, as some chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”

“We have lost a hero but this will not shake our will,” said one Hezbollah guerrilla who would identifyd himself only by his first name, Hassan. The 45-year-old said Mughniyeh had been his commander in south Lebanon during the 2006 war. “We are all Imad Mughniyeh.”

Another mourner, Hassan Awdeh, said Mughniyeh’s death “only strengthens us and gives us zeal to complete our path.”

So Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is actively working on developing nuclear weapons, sends a statement of condolences saying, “He’s not the first martyr, nor will he be the last on this path. There will be hundreds and millions more” like him.

People, be prepared for a nuclear strike on Israel and/or the United States. Let their be no misunderstanding of the “path” that Ahmadinejad refers to.

Unfortunately, Mutually Assured Destruction is not a deterrent to Ahmadinejad…it’s an incentive. Sad but true. Welcome to the end times. Be ready.

dorvillian, you can’t be surprised when the initial story turns out to be wrong. it always does. and it’s not a case of ‘lies’ but usually people with incomplete/sketchy info getting quoted about stuff as it’s happening. and then we all have fun talking out our asses about it as things change.

Innocent looking Castor Beans holding the chemicals when properly used can put Cancer into remission; but used improperly can put human life into complete remission.

Prayers to those who entered the room without knowing what was possibly in the air. Also, those who are responsible may never be found because they may turn up as obituary statistics due to improper handling on their part.

You may recall not too long ago at the hotel New York New York a car bomb device exploded and I believe killed a guy.
The hotel in question here I believe is Excalibur and note they are both owned by Mandelay Bay corp. Of course though they own half the strip, so its hard to not have something happen on one of their properties just by chance, with all due respect to Mandelay Bay.